The Mereology of Classes

The Mereology of Classes PDF Author: Gabriel Uzquiano
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009090305
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
This Element is a systematic study of the question of whether classes are composed of further parts. Mereology is the theory of the relation of part to whole, and we will ask how that relation applies to classes. One reason the issue has received attention in the literature is the hope that a clear picture of the mereology of classes may provide further insights into the foundations of set theory. We will consider two main perspectives on the mereology of classes on which classes are indeed composed of further parts. They, however, disagree as to the identity of those parts. Each perspective admits more than one implementation, and one of the purposes of this work is to explain what is at stake with each choice.

The Mereology of Classes

The Mereology of Classes PDF Author: Gabriel Uzquiano
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009090305
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 94

Get Book Here

Book Description
This Element is a systematic study of the question of whether classes are composed of further parts. Mereology is the theory of the relation of part to whole, and we will ask how that relation applies to classes. One reason the issue has received attention in the literature is the hope that a clear picture of the mereology of classes may provide further insights into the foundations of set theory. We will consider two main perspectives on the mereology of classes on which classes are indeed composed of further parts. They, however, disagree as to the identity of those parts. Each perspective admits more than one implementation, and one of the purposes of this work is to explain what is at stake with each choice.

Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction

Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction PDF Author: Giorgio Lando
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 147258368X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Parthood and composition are everywhere. The leg of a table is part of the table, the word "Christmas" is part of the sentence "I wish you a merry Christmas", the 13th century is part of the Middle Ages. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg compose Benelux, the body of a deer is composed of a huge number of cells, the Middle Ages are composed of the Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, and Late Middle Ages. Is there really a general theory covering every instance of parthood and composition? Is classical mereology this general theory? Are its seemingly counter-intuitive features serious defects? Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction addresses the multifaceted and lively philosophical debates surrounding these questions, and defends the idea that classical mereology is indeed the general and exhaustive theory of parthood and composition in the domain of concrete entities. Several examples of parthood and composition, involving entities of different kinds, are scrutinised in depth. Incidentally, mereology is shown to interact in a surprising way with metaontology. Presenting a well-organized and comprehensive discussion of parthood and related notions, Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction contributes to a better understanding of a subject central to contemporary metaphysics.

Notes on the Mereology of Classes

Notes on the Mereology of Classes PDF Author: Joshua Phillip Finkler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Set theory
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description


Mereology

Mereology PDF Author: A. J. Cotnoir
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198749007
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
Is a whole something more than the sum of its parts? Are there things composed of the same parts? If you divide an object into parts, and divide those parts into smaller parts, will this process ever come to an end? Can something lose parts or gain new ones without ceasing to be the thing it is? Does any multitude of things (including disparate things such as you, this book, and the tail of a cat) compose a whole of some sort? Questions such as these have occupied us for at least as long as philosophy has existed. They define the field that has come to be known as mereology-the study of all relations of part to whole and of part to part within a whole-and have deep and far-reaching ramifications in metaphysics as well as in logic, the foundations of mathematics, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of science, and beyond. In Mereology, A. J. Cotnoir and Achille C. Varzi have compiled decades of advanced research into a comprehensive, up-to-date, and formally rigorous picture. The early chapters cover the more classical aspects of mereology; the rest of the book deals with variants and extensions. Whether you are an established professional philosopher, an interested student, or a newcomer, inside you will find all the tools you need to join this ever-evolving field of inquiry and theorize about all things mereological.

Logical Semiotics and Mereology

Logical Semiotics and Mereology PDF Author: Richard M. Martin
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027232881
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
The papers in this volume are concerned with a variety of vitally important topics in philosophical logic, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of science, and in the application of modern logic to wider philosophical problems. All of them make fundamental use, in one way or another, of logical semiotics, the modern trivium of systematic syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and some of them, of mereology, the general theory of parts and whole. The book includes 20 articles, dealing with such subjects as 'Logical semiotics and logistic grammar', 'The semiotics of mathematical practice', 'Husserlian parts and wholes', 'Compound individuals and the languages of science', and discusses work of Geach, Lesniewski, Carnap, Peirce, and Quine.

Mereology and Location

Mereology and Location PDF Author: Shieva Kleinschmidt
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199593825
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
A team of leading philosophers presents original work on theories of parthood and of location. Topics covered include how we ought to axiomatise our mereology, whether we can reduce mereological relations to identity or to locative relations, whether Mereological Essentialism is true, different ways in which entities persist through space, time, spacetime, and even hypertime, conflicting intuitions we have about space, and what mereology and propositions can tell us about one another. The breadth and accessibility of the papers make this volume an excellent introduction for those not yet working on these topics. Further, the papers contain important contributions to these central areas of metaphysics, and thus are essential reading for anyone working in the field.

Parts of Classes

Parts of Classes PDF Author: David K. Lewis
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9780631176558
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description


Composition as Identity

Composition as Identity PDF Author: A. J. Cotnoir
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199669619
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Composition is the relation between a whole and its parts--the parts are said to compose the whole; the whole is composed of the parts. But is a whole anything distinct from its parts taken collectively? It is often said that 'a whole is nothing over and above its parts'; but what might we mean by that? Could it be that a whole just is its parts? This collection of essays is the first of its kind to focus on the relationship between composition and identity. Twelve original articles--written by internationally renowned scholars and rising stars in the field--argue for and against the controversial doctrine that composition is identity. An editor's introduction sets out the formal and philosophical groundwork to bring readers to the forefront of the debate.

Parts of Classes

Parts of Classes PDF Author: David K. Lewis
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9780631176565
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description


Mereology and the Sciences

Mereology and the Sciences PDF Author: Claudio Calosi
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319053566
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
This volume is the first systematic and thorough attempt to investigate the relation and the possible applications of mereology to contemporary science. It gathers contributions from leading scholars in the field and covers a wide range of scientific theories and practices such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering. Throughout the volume, a variety of foundational issues are investigated both from the formal and the empirical point of view. The first section looks at the topic as it applies to physics. The section addresses questions of persistence and composition within quantum and relativistic physics and concludes by scrutinizing the possibility to capture continuity of motion as described by our best physical theories within gunky space times. The second part tackles mathematics and shows how to provide a foundation for point-free geometry of space switching to fuzzy-logic. The relation between mereological sums and set-theoretic suprema is investigated and issues about different mereological perspectives such as classical and natural Mereology are thoroughly discussed. The third section in the volume looks at natural science. Several questions from biology, medicine and chemistry are investigated. From the perspective of biology, there is an attempt to provide axioms for inferring statements about part hood between two biological entities from statements about their spatial relation. From the perspective of chemistry, it is argued that classical mereological frameworks are not adequate to capture the practices of chemistry in that they consider neither temporal nor modal parameters. The final part introduces computer science and engineering. A new formal mereological framework in which an indeterminate relation of part hood is taken as a primitive notion is constructed and then applied to a wide variety of disciplines from robotics to knowledge engineering. A formal framework for discrete mereotopology and its applications is developed and finally, the importance of mereology for the relatively new science of domain engineering is also discussed.